The Ruby programming language is perfect for beginners: easy to learn, powerful, and fun to use! But wouldn't it be more fun if you were learning with the help of some wizards and dragons?

Ruby Wizardry is a playful, illustrated tale that will teach you how to program in Ruby by taking you on a fantastical journey. As you follow the adventures of young heroes Ruben and Scarlet, you’ll learn real programming skills, like how to:

Use fundamental concepts like variables, symbols, arrays, and strings

Work with Ruby hashes to create a programmable breakfast menu

Control program flow with loops and conditionals to help the Royal Plumber

Along the way, you’ll meet colorful characters from around the kingdom, like the hacker Queen, the Off-White Knight, and Wherefore the minstrel. Ruby Wizardry will have you (or your little wizard) hooked on programming in no time.

For ages 10+ (and their parents!)

Author Bio

Eric Weinstein has helped millions of people learn to program through Codecademy, where he designed and authored the Ruby curriculum and contributed courses on Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and PHP. He has also taught creative writing to undergraduates and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at NYU, where he was a Veterans Writing Workshop Fellow. He writes Ruby for a living in New York City.

Table of contents

Foreword by Steve Klabnik
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: What This Book’s AboutChapter 2: The King and His StringChapter 3: Pipe DreamsChapter 4: Staying in the LoopChapter 5: Array of Sunshine and Hash on the RangeChapter 6: The (Chunky) Bacon to Ruby’s HashChapter 7: The Magic of Methods and BlocksChapter 8: Everything Is an Object (Almost)Chapter 9: Inheriting the Magic of RubyChapter 10: A Horse of a Different ColorChapter 11: Second Time’s the CharmChapter 12: Reading, Writing, and Ruby MagicChapter 13: Follow the WEBrick RoadChapter 14: Where to Go Next

"Speaking of Ruby, for real, if there's a kid in your life, get them a copy of Ruby Wizardry. It's so great."
—Steve Klabnik, author of Rust for Rubyists, web celebrity

"By the best & most wonderful Eric Weinstein: Ruby Wizardry, a new programming book for kids."
—Linda Liukas, author of Hello Ruby, Co-founder of Rails Girls

"Really psyched about Ruby Wizardry. Looks like the book I've been waiting for (and wanted to write) for years."
—Jeremy McAnally, author of Mr. Neighborly's Humble Little Ruby Book

"One of a new breed of titles that seeks to help children and young adults to not only get introduced to programming but actually get good at it...highly recommended."
—Becky Walton, MLIS, Ingram Collection Development (Read more)

"I can see this book mentioned years to come as this generation reminisces about how they learned to program."
—Ruby Learning (Read more)